Chapter 29 (REWRITE)

Henry and Rose stared at the closed door. It had been closed for a while now, but neither could look away.

"I need to go call my mom," Henry said. He gave Rose's hand a squeeze before he pulled out his phone and walked upstairs, leaving Rose, Joey, and Lilly downstairs.

Everything that had just happened came crashing down into Rose and she sat on the couch. She held her head with her hands and began to breathe deeply. Rider, her old Master had somehow almost been humanized to her. She hated him but hearing him beg and scream for Henry had shaken something loose in her. It had reminded her of all the times he had made Jessica scream and beg . . . all the times he had made her scream and beg. Now, she didn't know how much of that had been him and how much had been the manipulated, twisted version.

Her breathing increased.

"So uhm . . . Lilly trailed off thinking, not knowing what to do or say to help her almost hyperventilating sister.

"Do you want to know how I found your sister?" Joey asked. It was the only thing he could think of.

Rose looked up at him and nodded, her hands shaking.

"I've um . . . been alone for a long time" - he cleared his throat - "I had to learn how to survive by myself, grabbing food and collecting water. One day I was doing just that and I heard screams. I don't know why but I walked to it, but I did. By the time I arrived, I saw vampires carrying a girl out of the house . . . I think that girl was you," he said as he looked at Rose.

He had all of her attention now and her breathing was under control.

"I waited for the vampires to leave before I entered the house. When I did, I saw three people lying on the floor, blood coming out of their necks. I checked their pulses. Lilly was the only one alive, but just barely. I had an IV in my rucksack that I had stolen. It took a long time before Lilly regained consciousness. It took a few days, but she was slowly nursed back to health. Since then, we stayed together," Joey said, finishing his story.

Rose ran to Joey and hugged him, thanking him repeatedly. Joey remained stiff and frozen for a second before he hugged her back. As his arms wrapped around her, he could truly feel how frail and tiny her frame was. He glanced at Lilly and somehow, she had more on her than the older sister.

Joey motioned for Lilly to join them. When she came into reach, Rose grabbed her and hugged her as tight as possible.

When they pulled away, Henry walked out of the room.

Lilly smiled at Rose. "Go talk to him," she said, "I trust him." She tapped her knife on her waist with a faint smile.

Rose stiffly smiled and gave her sisters hand a tender squeeze before they all departed. Rose met Henry at the bottom of the stairs.

He sighed and sat down on one of the steps.

Rose sat down crisscrossed in front of him.

"The hospital called my mom and told her everything. Rick is being rushed to the hospital. Rider is still out but after the situation was explained to them, they say he'll be ok." He rubbed his face with his hand. "My mom says they're finally going to hold him and try and treat him."

Rose was hesitant to ask the question, but she was too curious. "How come he hasn't been treated before?" Maybe if he had been all her pain and suffering could have been avoided.

Henry let out a painful-sounding laugh. "My dad has money and status." He shrugged. "He never wanted our name to be tainted," he spat out. Within a second, the anger vanished and he hung his head. "I should have done something sooner . . . I should have tried harder. . . ."

Rose scooted closer to him. "You can't blame yourself."

"I saw it when we were children, Rider changing. I saw what Phil was doing but I was . . ." - He breathed out - "I don't know!"

Rose faintly flinched, but Henry didn't notice.

"I wanted Phil's approval? I was scared it would happen to me?" His head dropped more. "I lost my brother," he whimpered out.

Rose scooted even closer until her face was a centimeter away from his head.

Henry raised his gaze and she looked at his tear-filled eyes.

"I'm sorry about Rider." She paused for a moment. "But it sounds like he'll get better."

Henry smiled at this pure person in front of him. Rider had tormented and abused her for years, and yet here she was, apologizing about what had happened to his brother and also giving him hope. It was unfathomable that she was doing this after everything.

"Thank you," Henry whispered with a smile.

"No problem," Rose shyly responded.

Henry reached down and grabbed her hand. He placed their hands over his heart while simultaneously pulling her closer. Rose was right, Rider was getting help after all these years. He would be fixed and the two could be brothers again. However, that left the issue of Phil, the person who had done this to Rider and yet had covered it up every time there was an incident. It disgusted Henry to think that his father thought more highly of a title and a status than he did his own son.

Shoving Phil to the back of his mind, he focused on the beautiful, shy, timid, small, cute half species in front of him.

He smiled. "Come here," he murmured as he pulled her closer. With the spin of his arm, which was still holding her hand, he spun her around. A small squeal escaped her lips, but he only pulled her against him. He slid down to the floor and kept his back on the steps. He pulled Rose's head onto his chest and wrapped his arm around her.

She adjusted so her chin was on his chest and she was looking at him. Dried blood was around his lips and nose while specks of blood were on his shirt. Her finger tapped against his shirt, each time landing on a new spot. However, her body was covering the pool of blood on his side where he had been stabbed. The wound had healed but the blood was there.

She watched as her hand shook, the after-effects of the drugs finally seemed to be leaving her system for good. During the fight, her adrenaline had been so high she hadn't felt the effects.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"There's blood on your shirt."

He raised his head and saw what he was doing. Sighing, he leaned back and allowed his arm to leave Rose.

She sat up and looked at him.

"I need to go shower," he mumbled. He wanted all reminders of today wiped off him.

Rose wrapped her arms around herself, feeling the clothes. The same clothes that she had been imprisoned in. She hadn't realized it till now, but she wanted them gone. She needed them gone.

Henry looked down at her and watched as a shudder ran through her body. He realized she had been taken in those clothes. "You can wear some of mine." Before she could process his words, he had scooped her up in his arms and was walking upstairs. He opened a door and walked in. Sitting her down on the bed, he straightened out. "I'll be back." Henry disappeared and came back with sweatpants and a t-shirt.

"Thanks," she said as she grabbed the clothes.

"No problem," Henry said. He leaned down and kissed the top of her head. A violent blush appeared on her pale skin and Henry couldn't help but smile. "I'll be in the other room if you need anything."

All she could do was nod. The door shut behind him.

Rose eventually got up and hopped in the shower. The warm water instantly soothed her dirty skin and relieved her tight, sore muscles.

After showering, she dried herself and put on her new clothes, which, of course, hung off her frame. She walked out of her room and could hear Henry's shower still running. She walked downstairs, careful not to step in the small amounts of blood from Rick, Rider, and Henry.

She walked into the kitchen and grabbed a rag, wetting it. She grabbed a dry cloth as well. Walking to the first place of blood, she kneeled and began to scrub. She watched as some of the blood absorbed into the rag while the rest was pushed around in the water.

This scene was so familiar to her. After Rider would beat her, he would throw a rag at her and make her clean up her own blood. It didn't matter if she was sore or half knocked out. If she didn't do it right or missed a spot, she would be punished again. The dry rag ran over the wet area more than enough times.

She proceeded to the next pool of blood.

Drying the last wet spot, a pair of hands grabbed her from under her stomach and lifted her off the ground; her legs were still bent. Henry turned her over to where he was holding her bridal style.

"What are you doing?" Rose asked.

Henry grabbed the rags and threw them to the ground. "The real question is, what are you doing?" Henry raised an eyebrow and sat down on the couch, placing Rose on his lap.

"I was cleaning." She pointed at the two rags on the ground.

"Why?"

"Because there is blood on the floor."

"Yeah, but I'm here now. Don't worry about the blood, it's not important. I'm important," Henry said as he brought her closer to him.

She smiled and nodded. Looking at Henry, she saw how tired and exhausted he looked. Small dark circles were under his eyes. His hair was still wet from the shower, making his brown hair look darker and flat. It was the first time that his hair wasn't styled up. Rose laughed a little at the sight of it.

"What's so funny?" Henry furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.

"Your . . . your hair," Rose said in between laughs as she pointed at his hair. She couldn't remember the last time she had laughed like this. Over hair!

He flipped his hair and swooped it to one side of his head. "Don't laugh at my hair." Truth be told, he wished she wouldn't stop laughing. She had such a cute laugh and the fact he had never heard it fully until now was almost maddening. He wanted to make her laugh, smile, blush, all those things he knew she had been denied of for years. All the tiredness and stress drained from his body.

"It looks good on you." Rose patted down his hair, straight and then ran her fingers through his hair before she patted it down again. He couldn't help but chuckle.

Eventually, her hand left his hair and she began to tap against the wet areas of his shirt, made by water instead of blood.

Henry started to rock back and forth slowly. Rose pressed her head into his chest as Henry wrapped his arm around her and pulled her even closer to him. Henry put his chin on top of Rose's head.

Rose had fallen asleep to the steady rhythm of Henry rocking back and forth. Her hand that had grasped to his shirt had fallen limply on top of her. Her shirt had slid down one of her shoulders, revealing a scar from the tree, the one and only time she had tried to escape.

Henry moved the shirt back over her shoulder. He pressed Rose closer to him, feeling sorry that she still had scars and memories from her old life. He didn't know what they were from, but he didn't particularly want to know.

Henry stood up and carried Rose to her bedroom. A thin smile spread across his face as he looked at her peaceful face. She wasn't shaking, whimpering, or having nightmares; just at peace.

He moved the hair out of her face and tucked it behind her ear. "I'll always protect you" Henry whispered to her. He leaned his head down and kissed her gently on the cheek. "I promise."

Thank you as always for reading. Hope you liked it.

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